A pity that the film degenerates through attempting too much; for in the first half, when Dassin is working within his limitations, he creates an admirably incisive and entertaining piece of melodrama.

| Mar 18, 2020

Viewers become something like collaborators, invested in working out what, say, that umbrella is going to be used for - and then pleased to discover whether we've gotten it right or not.

| Sep 1, 2015

Jules Dassin doesn't waste much time in expressing exactly what he thinks of the criminals and gangster culture that rule his underworld.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 28, 2015

It took an experienced US director, Jules Dassin, who has lived in France some years, to give the French gangster pic the proper tension, mounting and treatment. This pic has something intrinsically Gallic without sacrificing the rugged storytelling.

| Oct 30, 2007

The film turns moralistic and sour in the last half, when the thieves fall out.

| Oct 30, 2007

A familiar but effective parable of honor among thieves.

| Oct 30, 2007

Jules Dassin's classic jewel-thief caper of 1955 looks as smart as paint, with its unendurably tense, entirely wordless robbery section.

| Oct 30, 2007

Actually rather overrated, lacking the tension, profundity, and vivid characterisation of similar films.

| Jan 26, 2006

This is perhaps the keenest crime film that ever came from France, including Pepe le Moko and some of the best of Louis Jouvet and Jean Gabin.

| Original Score: 5/5 | May 20, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 3, 2003

There is something else unique about the heist scene: It is the centerpiece of the film, not the climax.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 27, 2002

One of the greatest crime movies ever made.

| Aug 20, 2002

The heist in Rififi is a dazzling and suspenseful set-piece.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 12, 2002

A quintessential film noir

| May 12, 2001

One of the great crime thrillers, the benchmark all succeeding heist films have been measured against, it's no musty museum piece but a driving, compelling piece of work, redolent of the air of human frailty and fatalistic doom.

| Feb 13, 2001

Features posturing aplenty -- particularly if you include the climactic gunfire arabesques. No one, however, has nearly the doomed glamour of the tight-lipped, gimlet-eyed, consumptive Tony Le Stphanois.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

I won't bore you by rhapsodizing over the moody poetic night world artistry of Rififi.

| Original Score: A | Jan 1, 2000